I’ve heard on the grapevine that regular visitors to the Geelong Heritage Centre in the former Little Malop Street building have not started appearing at the new location in the National Wool Museum in Moorabool Street.

Despite working in Melbourne 5 days a week, I managed to visit the “new” Geelong Heritage Centre last week – I wasn’t sure what to expect but what a pleasant surprise – you don’t know what you’re missing!

This blog isn’t about repeating the information on the GHC web site – it’s aimed at making you feel comfortable about dropping in to the new centre for a visit and some research. Explore the web site of the GHC to find out all the details: opening times, services, activities, events, bookshop, catalogue and much more. And hopefully you won’t miss the great news that the new Geelong Heritage Centre is open FIVEdays a week from 10.00 am.

Join me on my journey to the “new” Geelong Heritage Centre …

THE OLD GEELONG HERITAGE CENTRE:

If you mistakenly go to the Old Geelong Heritage Centre site, this is what you would have been greeted with in November 2013. It looks pretty forlorn but you’ll have a chance to see the artist’s impression of the magnificent new building for the Geelong Regional Library and the Geelong Heritage Centre.

If you’re standing looking at this and cursing at anyone you can think of, don’t get too frustrated – the location of the “new” centre is not that far away.

GETTING TO THE “NEW” GEELONG HERITAGE CENTRE:

Make your way to the north east corner of Johnstone Park – on the way, enjoy the view of the Peace Memorial, Geelong Art Gallery and the Geelong Town Hall. It’s amazing how many people haven’t seen these beautiful buildings from this angle.

From the corner of the Park, walk along Malop Street to the next intersection [Moorabool Street], turn left and before you get to the next intersection [Brougham Street] you’ll be at the site of the “new” Geelong Heritage Centre.

The City of Greater Geelong also runs a Central Geelong Free Summer Shuttle Service that stops at the train station, the Waterfront, Geelong Botanic Gardens and other Central Geelong locations. Contact the City or Tourist Information Centres for details.

THE “NEW” [INTERIM] GEELONG HERITAGE CENTRE – WHERE:

Top Floor, National Wool Museum

26 Moorabool Street, Geelong

HOW TO FIND THE GHC at the NATIONAL WOOL MUSEUM:

The GHC is located on the top [third] floor of the National Wool Museum [below left, centre and right]

Go through the main doors between the National Wool Museum [red] and Geelong Heritage Centre [blue] banners. [below centre and right]

Once you are through the doors, go to the desk on your left [below left]. Ask for your pass to go up to the Geelong Heritage Centre [below right]. You must wear this pass while you are in the building to use the Geelong Heritage Centre otherwise you will be asked to purchase a ticket for the National Wool Museum. Don’t forget to return your lanyard and pass to the desk on your way out.

Access to the top floor is via the ramp through the National Wool Museum. Go straight to the Geelong Heritage Centre – your pass is not a ticket to the Wool Museum! The ramp is a very gentle slope to the top floor – if you have any concerns, ask at the front desk for a wheelchair. Wool Museum volunteers cannot wheel you up to the Geelong Heritage Centre – you will need to be accompanied by someone who can help you.

Continue up the ramp until you see the huge stack of wool bales [below left], go up the ramp with the bales on your right [below centre] and you will notice two entrances in front of you [below right].

Go to the entrance on the left first as this contains the lockers [above right].

No bags are permitted in the Heritage Centre Reading Room so they should be placed in one of the lockers provided [below left]. Remember to take your key with you and keep it in a safe place. Only pencils are permitted in the centre – if you don’t have one, you will find some in the Reading Room.

Return to the entrance on the right [above right], go through the entrance and turn right.

INSIDE THE GEELONG HERITAGE CENTRE READING ROOM:

The reception / enquiry desk is on your left inside the Reading Room, just past the shelves of publications for sale [below left].

Report to the desk [below left] and make sure you know how and where to find resources.

IMPORTANT: The Reading Room is on three levels with a few steps on each side of the room between each level. There are good solid rails to hold as you move up or down the steps but if you feel you might have difficulty please speak to those on duty. Where possible they will bring items to you for viewing on the top [entrance] level so you don’t have to use the steps.

From the entrance:

rows of bookshelves are on the right of the Reading Room on all levels [above right and below left and right]

computers, tables and chairs are on the left on the middle level [above centre and right]

microfiche, microfilms and readers are on the left on the lower level [below left and right].

The new Reading Room contains most of what was available in the old [demolished] Reading Room.

WHAT ISN’T IN THE “NEW” GHC READING ROOM:

There is no direct access to the Archives at the GHC Reading Room. Mind you, very few people ever used these archives in the old [demolished] centre – and only PART of the Archives were held in Little Malop Street anyway!

It was Murphy’s Law that the item you wanted to view was stored off-site in which case you needed to order it in advance and wait for it to be available [a couple of weeks]. So really, nothing has changed!

Make use of the GHC web site to search the Archives and order the relevant item(s) or check to ensure that what you want to view is available when you visit. And don’t forget that many of the more popular archives have been filmed and are available to view on microfilm in the “new” Heritage Centre.

The GHC now has a terrific new scanner which means items on film or fiche can be scanned and saved as an image – don’t forget to bring your USB drive with you!

ENJOY YOUR VISIT TO THE “NEW” GEELONG HERITAGE CENTRE:

Without doubt, the “new” / interim Geelong Heritage Centre Reading Room is absolutely delightful. It’s fresh, well laid out, and very inviting. Do yourself a favour and drop in for some research.

GEELONG REGIONAL LIBRARY:

If you’re still standing at the demolition site in Little Malop Street and wondering where the library has gone, just look behind you – it’s in the Government Offices – the upside down pyramid building [below right].

So far the uploads include part of 1917 and 1918 – keep watching and DON’T FORGET to register and do your bit by correcting as many entries as possible to make it easier for others to find their families.

What an important project and one that YOU can get involved in! Iain Grant and the Portland Family History Group have been compiling a list of anyone who had a connection with building the Great Ocean Road between 1919 and 1932. Unfortunately the “official” records were destroyed during WWII so the only way to compile a comprehensive list is with help from you – the descendants, families, or friends of those workers.

And we’re not just talking about the actual road workers – there are so many others who should be on this list. Local farmers and land owners who helped with provisions. Suppliers, carters, engineers, surveyors, pastoral care workers, medical and health workers, wives and families who supported their husbands, fathers and relatives.

Who provided the tents and supplies for the various camps along the length of the road? There were 2,400 ex-servicemen and 500 civilians working on this project. And how many more were associated with the project?

The 2013 Press Release gives so much more information – it is worth reading and may give you some ideas on how you can contribute – photos, information, names … It also includes contact details for Iain and the Portland Family History Group.

Was your ancestor in Ballarat in 1869? Did they attend the opening of the completed facade and Fine Arts Exhibition by the Governor? Perhaps they’re in these images? What a wonderful thought! These beautiful images are of the Mechanics Institute, Sturt Street, Ballarat and its main hall – now called the Minerva Space.

You could follow in their footsteps and stand in this magnificent room – FREE!

The special exhibition is being held in the Minerva Space in the Mechanics Institute, Sturt Street, Ballarat. This is a great chance to see this magnificently restored room in the 1860s Mechanics Institute.

You won’t often get this sort of Golden opportunity, so why not come along and visit us – you might even win one of the prizes on offer from the participating exhibitors.

There are more opportunities – not free but definitely a golden opportunity – Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th May, Australian Catholic University, Ballarat:

Saturday – 3.00 pm – Regional Victoria: A Goldfields Experience – Susie Zada [yes – that’s me!] presenting on the impact of the Victorian goldfields on regional Victoria. Of course the Geelong region will feature in this presentation and you will learn about resources that may help you find your elusive ancestors on the goldfields. Of course there is no guarantee you will find them but you’ll certainly gain a better understanding of what you might find.

As reported in the recent blog, there were lots of very large gaps for the digitised images. There were 913 issues digitised and online with 1,600 still to come.

I haven’t had time to check them all yet but I have checked up to Wed 31 Dec 1851 and so far all have digitised images. BUT it appears that we might have ALL of them up to 9 Aug 1856 searchable and digitised!

We know there are still some missing individual issues that we hope will be tracked down and included but apart from those, we can now search and view the Geelong Advertiser [under its various titles] from the FIRST issue 21 November 1840 through to 9 August 1856. That’s 2,844 issues online!

I must confess to a little frustration at the lack of movement in the Geelong Advertiser being loaded into TROVE after the initial couple of updates. I did ask a couple of questions recently – whether there was any connection between the questions and the recent flurry of updates I honestly can’t say – I’m just VERY grateful that a lot more has been added!

That said, I was then rather confused at the date range of updates and what was really there when you looked at the detail. I’m sure others may also be confused so I’ve been doing a bit of work identifying what’s really there and what’s only partially there.

When you follow the above links you can see each date for each month for each title which “appears” in TROVE. It is not until you click on a specific date that you either see the first page for that date or you are presented with a message that says “This item is part way through the digitisation process. It will be available when this page passes the final quality control check. This is likely to be within the next 1-28 days.”

If you search for an entry in any of the three titles for the Geelong Advertiser, some entries will include the phrase “[coming soon]”. Click on the “[coming soon]” link and you will be presented with the same message as above.

The following table shows the status of the Geelong Advertiser planned for this digitisation group as at Saturday 3 November 2012. It shows the date ranges that are fully online and those in the [coming soon] category as not yet fully online. I will try to update it when I become aware of more dates being completed.

Year

Date from

Date to

Title

Issues Online

Not yet online

1845

Wed 28 May

Sat 28 Jun

Geelong Advertiser and Squatters’ Advocate [1845-1847]

10

1845

Wed 2 Jul

Wed 31 Dec

Geelong Advertiser and Squatters’ Advocate [1845-1847]

42

1846

Sat 3 Jan

Wed 30 Dec

Geelong Advertiser and Squatters’ Advocate [1845-1847]

100

1847

Sat 2 Jan

Tue 26 Oct

Geelong Advertiser and Squatters’ Advocate [1845-1847]

76

1847

Fri 29 Oct

Tue 28 Dec

Geelong Advertiser [1847-1851]

18

1848

Tue 4 Jan

Sat 30 Dec

Geelong Advertiser [1847-1851]

127

1849

? Jan

? Mar

Geelong Advertiser [1847-1851]

?

1849

Tue 3 Apr

Sat 29 Dec

Geelong Advertiser [1847-1851]

134

1850

Tue 1 Jan

Fri 30 Aug

Geelong Advertiser [1847-1851]

199

1850

Mon 2 Sep

Mon 30 Dec

Geelong Advertiser [1847-1851]

94

1851

Wed 1 Jan

Fri 31 Oct

Geelong Advertiser [1847-1851]

247

1851

Sat 1 Nov

Sat 20 Dec

Geelong Advertiser [1847-1851]

42

1851

Mon 22 Dec

Wed 31 Dec

Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer [1851-1856]

8

1852

Thu 1 Jan

Fri 31 Dec

Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer [1851-1856]

303

1853

Sat 1 Jan

Thu 28 Jul

Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer [1851-1856]

178

1853

Mon 1 Aug

Sat 31 Dec

Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer [1851-1856]

129

1854

Wed 4 Jan

Tue 28 Feb

Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer [1851-1856]

48

1854

Wed 1 Mar

Thu 31 Aug

Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer [1851-1856]

156

1854

Fri 1 Sep

Sat 30 Dec

Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer [1851-1856]

103

1855

Mon 1 Jan

Mon 30 Apr

Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer [1851-1856]

103

1855

Tue 1 May

Mon 31 Dec

Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer [1851-1856]

209

1856

Tue 1 Jan

Sat 9 Aug

Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer [1851-1856]

187

TOTAL

913

1600

An important thing to keep in mind – there are random dates that have not been digitised at this stage due to missing issues. Some are odd dates and others are for a range of dates such as Jan-Mar in 1849 – it is hoped that missing issues will be located and added at a later stage.

The first part is here! So far 1 Nov 1851 – 20 Dec 1851 and I must confess that the first page I looked at was not great quality but there is so much to look forward to. As you can see from the list below, this is the last part of the second group of papers.

I think we’ve all been holding our breath after the National Library said [in January 2012] the following would occur …

The papers are currently being scanned and hopefully would be completed by the end of the financial year [June 2012]. The papers in this lot are:

Geelong Advertiser and Squatters’ Advocate (28 May 1845-26 Oct 1847)

Geelong Advertiser (29 Oct 1847-20 Dec 1851)

Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer (22 Dec 1851-9 Aug 1856)

Now for the latest news!

It is so close you can smell it! If you go to TROVE and search for Geelong Advertiser you’ll see what I mean! For the results which include the title(s) and date range shown above it also shows the magic words [coming soon].

A layman’s interpretation is the OCR / text part is loaded [or in the process of being loaded] and the images will follow.

The bottom line is that it is VERY CLOSE!

I suggest that everyone gets some extra sleep in preparation for some LONGnights searching the Addy.

And for those that want 1843 or 1857 or later – let’s be very grateful that at least it’s started and there will be more to come.

One thing my previous blog proved – a LOT of people believe that the Geelong Advertiser is an important newspaper and that it should be part of the National Library of Australia Newspaper Digitisation project!

The papers are currently being scanned and hopefully would be completed by the end of the financial year [June 2012]. The papers in this lot are:

Geelong Advertiser and Squatters’ Advocate (28 May 1845-26 Oct 1847)

Geelong Advertiser (29 Oct 1847-20 Dec 1851)

Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer (22 Dec 1851-9 Aug 1856)

It is important to note that this scanning is being funded by the National Library of Australia and not by the State Library of Victoria. And I guess that also adds weight to our argument on how important these papers are.

This also fits with the statements made when the Digitised Newspapers project was announced at the Genealogy Congress in Darwin in 2006. At the time I remember being particularly excited when they announced that one key regional newspaper for each state would be selected as part of the pilot project. For New South Wales it was the Maitland Mercury [where many of my ancestors lived] and for Victoria it was the Geelong Advertiser. At the time I remember feeling smugly spoilt! The Maitland Mercury happened but not the Addy.

Now before you start jumping up and down and yelling and saying that the Addy doesn’t appear on the Future Titles web site [that’s what I did!] … if you do a FIND on the page you’ll find them in the strangest place! They’re listed under South Australia! I don’t care where they’ve put them – as long as they are there that’s all that matters. [And AFTER I posted this blog I noticed that the Geelong Advertiser now belongs to Victoria – right where it should be.]

By now you should have noticed that the papers to be scanned commence 28 May 1845 and the Geelong Advertiser began 21 Nov 1840 – so what about the issues 1840-1845?

I’m guessing the decision has been made to not repeat what’s already been done or they’re waiting until they can access all the issues missing between 1840 and 1845.

Back in 2004 to 2006 I did a lot of work checking these files. At the time I produced a spreadsheet showing which papers were missing. I’ve just double checked the spreadsheet and it’s still the same. I’ll mention a few gaps here but I’ve also uploaded the spreadsheet as an Acrobat file so you can at least check if there are important dates that may already be online. [ Geelong Advertiser Summary of papers 1840-1845 ]

Some explanations for the “gaps”:

There are random omissions – I don’t have an explanation for these.

There are NO editions for 1843, hence the jump from 26 Dec 1842 edition No. 110 to 1 Jan 1844 No. 184.

There is a strange mixup of edition numbers from 10 Jul 1844 No. 238 to 15 Jul 1844 No. 230. A sequence of edition numbers if repeated – and also missing first time around.

There are some gaps of almost a month throughout 1844 – no explanation.

There is no issue No. 315 however this may never have been produced – following the sequence it would have been for 28 May 1845. You’ll notice that the name changed 28 May 1845 to Geelong Advertiser & Squatters Advocate – they may have just decided to skip an issue number.

The planned scanning for NLA commences with this new title on 28 May 1845.

It’s possible that someone on our Geelong & District Mailing List may have done more detailed research into the missing / existing issues and can give us an update.

In the meantime let’s celebrate the imminent digitisation of a good chunk of the Geelong Advertiser. Our next task is to confirm the plans for 2012-13 – hopefully the scanning won’t stop at 1856.

I know a LOT of people will be getting a LOT of sleepless nights once the Addy hits TROVE – in the meantime you’ve got nearly six months to store up some extra sleep to compensate for the last half of the year!

GMA Sunday TalkFebruary 25, 2018 at 2:00 pm – 3:30 pmNational Wool Museum, 26 Moorabool St, Geelong VIC 3220, AustraliaThe Holden Family and Holden Brothers Circus in our region. Susie Zada will entertain us with the interesting story of this circus family with a base on the Bellarine Peninsula